Thorn and her sister Donna grew up in Albany, Western Australia, and spent their young lives as fisherman's daughters. The girls' father, Jimmy, fished salmon year round. In an interview with Andrew Denton, Thorn described the lifestyle of a fisherman's daughter: “ "Yeah, we played in we played in vats of blood, and all these fish guts. Yeah, it happened sort of three months a year. And there’s three families that go out there, and we’re the third generation actually, so our grandfather, and our father and now us and ah the, they sit on the beach and they watch for schools of salmon coming along, and it’s a very old method of fishing." ”
Thorn received her first guitar when she was a teenager, and she started playing Bob Dylan songs and harmonizing Everly Brotherssongs with her sister. On Thorn's last day of high school, Vikki was picked up by her sister in a yellow Kombi and asked her to travel with her:“ "I’d said to Vikki, you know, we should go round Australia. Let’s, let’s just get out of here, let’s go travelling. You know, we were from this town where if we saw a car come through from over east with eastern states numberplates, I mean I would just look at these cars and think wow, they’re from over east. They’re from Sydney and, and Wollongong and…you know and it was really exciting for us. So I bought this old van and I went and picked her up from school."
When Vikki and Donna met Josh Cunningham in the early nineties, they had been touring all throughout greater Western Australia, and playing the blues in certain bars based on what the town's tourist bureau described as the music scene for that area. After less than an hour's time the sisters spent with Cunningham, Donna asked him to tour with them. Just like that, The Waifs were formed.
The Waifs toured Western Australia from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, they decided to move to the east coast of Australia and make The Waifs a serious music career. In May 1996, their self-titled debut was released, three months after it was recorded. It featured three songs from Thorn: "Circles", "I Believe", and "Company". After touring more throughout the mid-nineties, the band released Shelter Me in 1998, and Sink or Swim in 2000. Sink or Swim was released, and more touring commenced. The Waifs were now becoming an international concern, and popularity increased when Up All Night was released. Shortly after its release, the album was certified 2x platinum in Australia and two successful singles followed: "London Still" and "Lighthouse", written by Thorn's sister Donna and Josh Cunningham, respectively.
Thorn's song "Bridal Train" was released as a single in 2004, and the song won the USA Songwriting Competition in 2006. The Waifs' latest album, Sun, Dirt, Water has a lead single of the same name, which was written by Thorn.
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